America’s Second Reconstruction

The Civil Rights Movement, 1954 - 1968

The Unfinished Business of Reconstruction

In what ways had African Americans experienced success during the Reconstruction era?

In what ways had Reconstruction failed African Americans?

Where did African Americans stand in American society by 1950?

The Need for a Civil Rights Movement

Key Events in African American History, 1857 - 1900Dred Scott Decision (1857)Civil War Amendments (1865 – 1869)

– gains and losses ??Vigilante “justice”, the KKK, and

lynchings (1870s-1960s)Plessy vs. Ferguson Court Case

(1896)Jim Crow Laws

The Need for a Civil Rights Movement

Key Events in African American History, 1900 – 1950Creation of NAACP (1910)Great Migration (1916 – 1920)Harlem Renaissance (1920s)WWII and the “Double V” Campaign

(1941 – 1945)Truman’s desegregation of the military

(1947)

School Desegregation

Thurgood Marshall and NAACP lawyers following the Brown decision

Brown Family, Topeka, KS

School Desegregation: Southern Opposition

Protesting Desegregation in Arkansas

Protesting Desegregation in Alabama

School Desegregation: State vs. Federal Authority

Roots of the Movement (1954 – 1957)

Brown vs. Bd of Ed Legal justification for desegregation based

on 14th Amendment Emmett Till Murder

Generated anger change Montgomery Bus Boycott

Proved the power of mass, peaceful demonstrations of the people

Leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

High Tide of the Movement (1957 – 1965)

Creation of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957 Built on energy of Montgomery Bus Boycott Organization of ministers and community

leaders; led by King Message

• 20th Century Social Gospel• Nonviolent Resistance (Ghandi)

• Highly confrontational, but not violent• Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)

• Peacefully disobey unjust laws• Love, not hate (Jesus Christ)

High Tide of the Movement(1957 – 1965)

Student Involvement and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) – 1960 Biracial Worked with SCLC, but more radical

Sit-In Movement Attempt to desegregate lunch counters Nashville, TN and Greensboro, NC Students highly trained in nonviolent methods Boycotts of national chains in support of

movement

Sit-In Movement

Greensboro, NC 1960

Northern support for sit-ins

John Lewis and other SNCC members jailed for sit-ins

Sit-In Movement

Jackson, Mississippi 1963 @ Woolworth’s

High Tide of the Movement(1957 – 1965)

Election of 1960

Freedom Riders

Bus Burnings – Anniston, AL

Rider Jim Zwerg – Montgomery, AL riots

High Tide of the Movement(1957 – 1965)

Freedom Riders (1961) CORE and SNCC participation Testing federal interstate bus desegregation

mandates Trouble in the Deep South

• Anniston, AL• Birmingham and Montgomery, AL• Role of the federal government• Jackson, MS – riders arrested and sentenced to

60 days in prison

High Tide of the Movement(1957 – 1965)

Birmingham, AL (April 1963) Most racially segregated and explosive city in the

South King, Shuttlesworth, SCLC organize to desegregate

the city• Boycotted stores• Public demonstrations and protests

King arrested “Letter from Birmingham Jail” – a defense of civil disobedience

Children’s Crusade – May 2• Why kids?• 900+kids arrested• Reactions of Bull Connor dogs, fire hoses, tear gas• Americans and the world shocked, horrified

High Tide of the Movement(1957 – 1965)

Violence in B-ham JFK drafted new civil rights legislation March on Washington (August 1963) to

show support for proposed law Civil Rights Act of 1964

Outlawed segregation in public accommodations and in government funded facilities

Promoted equal employment opportunities

High Tide of the Movement(1957 – 1965)

Voting Rights 24th Amendment (1964) – outlawed poll taxes Freedom Summer (Mississippi 1964) Selma – Montgomery March (March 1965)

• Selma = 2.1% of blacks registered to vote King led “freedom march”

• Violence at Edmond Pettus Bridge – “Bloody Sunday” (March 7)

• LBJ sent in federal marshals and National Guard march resumed 2 weeks later

Voting Rights Act – August 1965• Banned literacy tests• Federal authority to register voters• Tripled African American voting #’s in 1 year

Selma – Montgomery March